They meet for drinks after an absence of thirty years, still loving one another, and still sharing a secret.  “Still,” starring Melissa Gilbert (from Little House on the Prairie) and Mark Moses (from Mad Men), is opening Off-Broadway tonight just four days after the closing night on Broadway of “Left on Tenth,” another play starring two familiar faces from television portraying older characters drawn to one another. But they’re very different — not least because, while “Left” used illness to elicit pathos, “Still” uses infirmity as a comic route to passion. 

After catching up in a hotel bar for about half an hour, Mark kisses Helen; she kisses him back.

“Would you come upstairs,” he says, meaning to his hotel room.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“I’m 65 years old.”
“I’m 67”
“I don’t have breasts” (she had already told him she has breast cancer)
“I have a plate in my elbow.”
They continue to exchange an inventive inventory of infirmities – less  one-upmanship than a plea for compatibility…until the set of the hotel bar opens up into a hotel room.

If their winding up in bed is hardly a surprise, what unfolds in the latter half of Lia Romeo’s play is more sophisticated than one would expect from a show that might initially feel best-suited for dinner theater in Florida. Without my giving everything away, “Still” pivots into politics. Mark, a lawyer, is thinking of running for Congress…as a Republican. Helen, a novelist, is a liberal, aghast at discovering Mark’s party affiliation. The political in their case turns out to be deeply and mutually personal. The play has seamlessly turned from a romantic comedy into what is arguably an issue play; the main issue is whether people can sharply disagree on core beliefs and maintain a loving relationship. And, by implication, whether there is hope for any kind of comity in a polarized society.

“Still” largely works for me, in no small measure because of the two performances. These are pros. They make the most of Romeo’s crackling back-and-forth. Every pause, every switch in tone feels just right; their timing is exquisite.

The timing of the production as a whole, however, is more problematic for me. Colt Coeur produced the same play ten months ago at a different New York venue, with the same creative team but a different cast. Much has happened in the last ten months – must has happened in the last ten days! – to make most New York theatergoers surely view Mark’s arguments on behalf of  “moderate” Republicans as outdated and delusional.

Still
Colt Coeur at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture through March 23
Running time: 75 minutes, no intermission
Tickets:  $42 – $102
Written by Lia Romeo
Directed by Adrienne Campbell-Holt
Scenic design by Alexander Woodward, costume design by Barbara Bell, lighting design by Reza Behat, and sound design by Hidenori Nakajo. Stuart Metcalf is the production manager and Hillel Friedman and Rashad Chambers of Evan Bernardin Productions are General Manager
Cast: Melissa Gilbert, Mark Moses